The zombie game for people with brains

Monday

Oct 8, 2012 at 3:15 PMOct 8, 2012 at 3:56 PM

Two years ago at Christmas, 32-year-old board game aficionado Jeff Gracia was in the mood to kill some zombies. More specifically, he wanted to play a zombie game, but he could not find a game that had exactly what he wanted. So he rolled the dice and decided to create the game he wanted to play.

By Linda Bock TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

How do you kill a zombie?

Two years ago at Christmas, 32-year-old board game aficionado Jeff Gracia was in the mood to kill some zombies.

More specifically, he wanted to play a zombie game, but he could not find a game that had exactly what he wanted. So he rolled the dice and decided to create the game he wanted to play.

“I always liked zombie movies,” Mr. Gracia said, and zombie games. He works as an automation test engineer at his day job at Framingham-based Bose. “And board games are making a big resurgence.”

Mr. Gracia knew exactly what he had in mind: A zombie role-playing survival board game with a great story line requiring problem-solving skills, managing resources, collecting supplies, and team cooperation. So he created Zpocalypse, a survival board game set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Two to four players start in a basement-fallout shelter which can lead out to several base locations or even through the tunnels to sewer grates throughout the transformable board. Their survivors are trying to make it day to day in a world torn apart from the walking dead.

After that Christmas, Mr. Gracia's first step was to do research online, and he found GURPS, a guide for people who want to design a role-playing game. He wrote the story and outline for his game, and searched online for maps. Mr. Gracia discovered that Zack Parkes of New Jersey was already dabbling in creating games and had created post-apocalyptic zombie world with illustrated maps. Mr. Gracia printed off two-feet by two-foot map to use as the first “board” for his game and began playing the first – and very rough - version of his game.

“I admit,” Mr. Gracia said. “It wasn't that great at first.”

But Mr. Gracia, who lives in Marlboro, decided that the game had enormous potential, so he assembled a team – starting with his wife Theresa Gracia – to work on “Project Z.”

Over the next months, Mr. Gracia made several revisions and played different versions of his game with his wife and close friends. Julie Ahern-Hurston of Hudson was one of first to play the game with the couple, and became enamored with the project. Soon after, Ms. Ahern-Hurston became the editor and took on another role.

“I became known as the “Dark Duchess of Discipline,” Ms. Ahern-Hurston said. “If there are hard confrontations or tough decisions, I tend to take the lead.”

A big decision was made when Ms. Gracia suggested that they hire an artist and take the project to the next level.

“It was your idea,” Ms. Gracia said about her husband's game. “And it was my idea to make it go somewhere.” The next hurdle was to raise money to produce the game.

“I did a lot of research on how to get a game manufactured,” Mr. Gracia said. “I found it was really expensive.”

Mr. Gracia turned to Kickstarter, an online resource for raising money from the general public. The goal was to raise $15,000. The group filmed their video proposal to submit to Kickstarter on March 9, 2011. Their video was posted until April 22. The public's response was overwhelmingly positive, and $210,237 from 2.045 backers was pledged to their game in 45 days.

“We definitely tapped into something,” Mr. Gracia said. He turned to the Internet again and discovered artist Ricky Casdorph on Concept Art. Mr. Casdorph was living in Denver at the time, so the three had their first video conference in April 2011. Mr. Casdorph was immediately drawn to the “epic zombie survival” game.

“Because zombies are blowing up right now,” Mr. Casdorph said. “Even Home Depot has a zombie aisle.”

Mr. Casdorph noted that AMC's popular zombie series, “The Walking Dead” returns for another season on Sunday, Oct. 14, and a Hollywood movie, “World War Z,” starring brad Pitt is still being filmed. The movie involves the outbreak of a deadly zombies. Mr. Casdorph was on board. In fact, he moved to Marlboro from Colorado.

“Ricky and Jeff drove from Colorado to Massachusetts and players with backers along the way,” Ms. Gracia said.

With financial backing and so much positive feedback, Mr. Gracia decided to market his game so the next step was to hire a web developer. Mr. Parkes was hired as the technical director. Mr. Gracia formed GreenBrier LLC, and lawyer Nicholas Hurston came on board. The group was complete and they decided to meet in person for a Labor Day weekend marathon in 2011.

“Ricky flew in and Zach drove up,” Mr. Gracia said. “It was the first time we met in person. We played the game all weekend and worked through a lot of the kinks.”

The game, Project Z, was named Zpocalypse by the small team. Mr. Gracia consulted with David Tiertant of Burlington to run the numbers and serve as business advisor.

”We are collaborative like no other group,” Ms. Ahern-Hurston said.

The enthusiastic group of collaborators celebrated with a zombie Thanksgiving to do the final run-test runs of the game.

“We had green food,” Ms. Ahern-Hurston said. “And I 'massacred' the turkey. We also had 'fingers' breadsticks. For four days we worked and ate and played the game.”

Meanwhile the group had been introducing Zpocalypse at major board game conventions across the country. The game was created for ages 13 and up and for two to four players, and seemed to be a hit with all ages,

“These were the people who played board games all the time,” Ms. Gracia said. 'We were open to feedback, and we wanted to hear what they thought could make it better.”

At the conventions, Mr. Gracia learned of game guru Dan Yarrington of Manchester, N.H. Mr. Yarrington serves as the managing partner of Myriad Games, treasurer of the Professional Game Store Association, and CEO of Game Salute.

Mr. Gracia contacted him because Mr. Yarrington specializes in marketing, distribution and warehousing of games, and paced an order for 5,000 games at the end of June. The games will for sale by the beginning of the year; and pre-orders are already rolling in.

Next stop for Zpocalypse will be “Rock and Shock” at the DCU Center on Oct. 12-14. Mr. Gracia reserved a booth and his team will be demonstrating the game.

“We will play with anybody, anytime, at just the drop of the hat,” Mrs. Gracia said.

By the way, you kill a zombie in Zpocalypse, “With severe trauma to the cranium… The game mechanic for killing zombies changes throughout the game. However, simply rolling a six-sided die to get a 5 or a 6 would take out 1 zombie.”